WHY DO I BLOG

There are so many reasons why I started this blog that I would love to share with you all and so many reasons why I will continue trying to catch up on all my well-overdue posts. I have three full years of PA school to report on plus tons of content about my current job that I can't wait to share. Thankfully, I have more time now than ever before to get to writing. With less hours spent studying (less, not zero) and only working four days a week (no idea why I just typed "only" being that I work four 12 hour shifts, when the norm is three 12's) the extra blogging time is finally here. The point is, I get three full days off a week to myself for this passion project of mine, and I'm super excited for what's to come.

As I mentioned on my home page, I had very different motivations for starting a PA blog when I first started this site over a year ago. With my inbox overflowing and not enough hours in the day to answer every question (as personally as I would like), I was hoping that this blog would be the answer. Blogging allows me to respond to emails and DMs with a link to specific posts that have the answers to most (if not all) of people's questions. There's simply not enough hours in the day to type out responses to everyone. With this blog, no one gets ignored in my inbox, and I can spread my advice and experiences to a much larger audience. That makes my heart happy.

I hope that blogging about PA school and PA life will serve as a virtual memory book for myself, my family, my friends, and maybe my future children some day on how I got to where I am today. Going through something so challenging deserves to be recognized and remembered for years to come. When I'm having an off day or feeling like I've lost my path or my purpose in this crazy, evolving medical field I'm a part of, I can reflect on where I was, where I've been, and how I got here. Kudos to all the bloggers out there who are superstars and have the time to write blog posts and post Instagram videos while in PA school. That would have pushed my stress level over the edge, for sure. I had enough due dates and exams to worry about, there's no way I could've added another thing to my to-do list. I personally started a little late on the whole blogging thing, hence why I'm so behind now on posts. It would have been a lot easier to write as I went along, but hey better late than never right.

Aside from the obvious reasons of wanting to start a blog, I actually love to write. It's always been something that has come naturally to me as a student and writing blog posts provides me with the perfect creative outlet to share my thoughts and experiences. I've always had strong interests in photography, art, and digital creativity in school as well, so blogging just seemed like the right thing to get into. I love customization and personalization and my website gives me the opportunity to create a space to be proud of. I'm a bit of a technology nerd and creating content on Photoshop is another hobby of mine. I love uniformity. Consistency in formatting pleases my inner neat freak. And of course, I love the PA profession and all that it stands for. I really just feel like this blog brings all of my interests together in one place, and that also makes my heart happy.

I'm hoping that through blogging I can create a space for pre-PAs, PA students, and fellow PAs to come and read and not feel like they're in this alone. I want to spread any knowledge or advice that I wish I once had as a pre-PA. I know I worshiped PA students and practicing PAs. I attended every last PA event at my school I could find, read every last article about PA school I could get my hands on, and even created a pre-PA club at my school with my friends (next blog post, promise). Anything and everything PA-related, I wanted in. I would have done anything to get into PA school, and I know what it's like to want something so bad. I just know I would have loved and appreciated reading PA blogs and listening the PA podcasts a few years back, but social media and blogs weren't as big of a thing back then (god, I'm not a dinosaur…). There are so many more resources available these days and I want to contribute to that. Spread the love. That's the goal.

The PA blogging community and the medical blogging community (nurses, NPs, MDs, DOs etc.) is such a wonderful thing to be a part of. This blog gives me the opportunity to connect with smart and strong people from all across the country on a daily basis, that I wouldn't have gotten the chance to communicate with or meet otherwise. I now have the potential to work with high-quality companies that have fabulous products and even greater messages. I'm hoping to some day blog about places I've traveled and products I love (cameras, computers, apartment life, breweries, wineries, blow dryers-- all the things). Who knows, maybe some day I'll even expand my tabs and sell my own apparel or start my own podcast. But lets not get ahead of ourselves, I clearly have a lot of posts to get to before I start delving into that universe. What I'm getting at is, the possibilities are endless with this blog and that excites me. It makes me feel like I have a purpose larger than myself, and I feel empowered to be a part of and contribute to the PA blogging community.

I love Instagram and I love a good photo as much as the next girl (or boy), don't get me wrong, but words speak so much louder than images. This blog gives me the platform to talk about all the things that I wouldn't normally share online. The bad, the ugly, the honest truth. When I think PA on social media and when I think of being a PA at work, they are two completely different realms honestly. Wearing a white coat and "saving lives" and wearing scrubs and having a cool badge and wearing a surgical cap with a mask and having a cool title and being in the OR and doing surgery all looks great and fun on the gram, but that's really only the surface level of working in the medical field. I bet you I was smiling ear to ear in all of those photos. But how about all the photos I didn't post and sent to my mom instead? Meanwhile behind the scenes, people are crying, having meltdowns, having panic attacks, fainting etc. Where are all of those photos? You can look below for a glimpse at my bad days. Even just looking at those photos stresses me out, honestly. I'm for sure crying in the middle left LOL. That's what being pre-PA and being in PA school really looked like for me. It’s important for people to see the full look. People tend to avoid posting about the lack of sleep, the lack of exercise, the lack of healthy eating, the exam they failed, the preceptor that pimped them so hard they wanted to cry, or the surgeon that yelled at them in the middle of the OR to show their authority. I think it's just as important to share that side of medicine. It's all picture perfect online in a world that is anything but. And the image of being a PA online shouldn't be your driving force to get into PA school. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, it simply won't be enough to get you through school. It takes grit and it takes a village. If you know the type of person I am, you know that I am very straight to the point. Tell it like it is. Everything's black and white. Brutally honest. No bullshit. The struggle to and through PA school was SO real and it has to be shared. I think the most important thing when it comes to blogging is to be fully transparent and honest. This path isn't all glamorous and it's not for everyone. Medicine is messy. Medicine is stressful. Medicine is hierarchical. Medicine is controversial. Medicine is chaotic. Medicine is emotional. Medicine is hard. And I can't wait to share it ALL with you.
& That is why I blog.